Saturday, 19 September 2015

New arrivals.

To our Medical Centre at 8.30 this morning for our Flu Jabs - over in a few minutes and back home. Their system works like clockwork.

Now the farmer and friend T have gone tootling off to a village quite a few miles away to buy new 'point of lay' hens. They will be hybrid hens, bred to lay eggs - nothing beautiful but 'serviceable'. Still, we shall give them the best possible life - their half of the shed (the other half has the old hens in until they get used to one another, when they can mingle) has been cleaned out, de-flead and laid thickly with clean straw. The farmer has scattered corn among it to give the hens something to do while they are shut up and getting used to being with us. In a few days they will be let out into the fields - where they will experience grass for the first time - and also feel the sun on their backs.

When they arrive I shall nip out with the camera and take some photographs (hopefully), so watch this space.

Here are the photographs. The hens were quietly standing in the corner of the hut and making charming little noises - obviously a bit shell-shocked after their journey. Because it is such a lovely day and the sun is shining, the farmer has already put a small run out for them so that they can venture outside if they dare, and perhaps meet the other hens through the wire - and at least get fresh air and sunshine for the first time in their 18 week life.

15 comments:

We have our jabs next Saturday. We meet up with so many acquaintances I jokingly call it the highlight of our social calendar! Your new hens will be happy hens by the sound of it - I love the sounds they make and can remember being allowed to collect the eggs from my grandmother's hens.

We found some Point of Lay hens take several days to venture out and others are much braver and take a few steps out as soon as they can. We will soon be hen-less for the first time for 23 years and I shall have to buy eggs that will be very strange. If we are stuck here all winter we might get 3 or 4 new hens just to see us through

Well we acquired an unexpected hen this morning as well, trying to join our three, hoping she will go back home to 'Nelson', who keeps hens on the other side of the pub or so our neighbour has informed us. They are terrific layers those brown hens and make lovely chuntering noise...

That's a great little spot you have for your hens. I can absolutely "hear" the soft clucking sounds they would be making, as we used to have hens for quite a few years. I'm sure they will love getting out and scratching around in the grass. They look a lot like the kind we would get every couple of years. They are called Isa Brown around here. What are yours? -Jenn

I did not get a flu shot last year and am still deciding whether to go for the jab this year. The prior comment about the drive-in flu shots made me smile.

Those new hens are lucky to have arrived at your farm. Scattering the corn for them to find in the straw made me think that they will be having a hen's variation of an Easter egg hunt.

Thank you for the previous post about your farm's recent dairy farm history and the broad implications for dairy farming. I knew some of this information before, but hearing about a specific farm...and farmer...brought the issue even more importance.

I just replaced three of my older hens with five new ones. The old ones were getting a bit slow with their eggs and I felt some new blood was required. Next year I'll trade in the remaining three old ones for fresh stock. I can always tell when an egg has just been laid by the sound they make and I love handing the still warm eggs to people. Some of the faces......